Doggy door for cats?

[Deleted]

I am starting to think about when/if we move out of our apartment and get a house, I would like to be able to keep the litter box in the utility/laundry room (assuming the house has one.) I don't want to have to keep the door propped open all the time, partly because my cats have a habit of closing doors on themselves and getting trapped. Do they make cat doors? would a doggy door thing work or would they just be confused?

[niemand88f]

They do make ones that claim to be for cats, but I don't see a difference between those and doggy doors. Since it's indoors I would try to find a really flexible one they don't have to push hard against. But if your cats are unhappy with the door arrangement there may be accidents around the house...

[Deleted]

Well, if I have to prop open the door, I will do so, but am willing to try this first. This is still a little ways down the road, anyway, but I am starting to look into options. I would love to move their litter boxes now, but they are so accustomed to where they are I don't want to change something and piss them off.

[mainerocks]

We have two pet doors inside and my cats took them pretty quickly. We put them in without the flap for a while, and then once they were used to using the whole in the door, we put the flaps on and showed them how. Then when we got two new cats, we didn't bother with taking it off because they caught on immediately.

Note: I found in my research that it's important to get a soft flap, otherwise your cat can get caught in the door. Which is obviously awful if you aren't home, but also bad if it scares them and they don't want to use it anymore.

[kellbell191]

We have one from our basement to our laundry room for the cats to get to their litterboxes and it works great. The dogs kept knocking down the babygates,.

[msmerymac]

Do they have covered litter boxed with a flap currently? My only concern would be whether or not they will use something with a flap. Some cats are braver than others. Some are smarter than others. Even if a door is propped open a few inches, one of my cats won't push himself through. I swear, he'd starve to death being able to see his food bowl! The only way to know is to try, but I'd hate for you to go to the trouble and then not have it work.

[smock]

We had one when I was growing up. Two of our cats figured it out right away and loved it. The third cat was less smart. It took her 9 months to figure out how to use the door, and then another 6 months to realize it worked both ways.

[G22]

Jul 24, 2012 12:40:04 GMT -5 @cse1960 said:

We have a 'pet door';it came already built into the storm door we bought for the side of the house. It is SO nice. The cats use it all the time, along with the dog, and have no issues with it. As soon as one 'got it', they all did it.

This is my story exactly.

[niemand88f]

Jul 24, 2012 14:47:26 GMT -5 smock said:

We had one when I was growing up. Two of our cats figured it out right away and loved it. The third cat was less smart. It took her 9 months to figure out how to use the door, and then another 6 months to realize it worked both ways.

That made me LOL, cats can be so strange